Ongoing

  1. ElectionsHot
  2. US mid-termsHeating up
  3. AICooling
Newsbrief
JoburgJHB29°69%
CTCT21°90%
PretoriaPTA33°75%
DurbanDBN30°20°

Masemola hands 1 087 new vehicles to high crime police stations

Published

National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola handed over the vehicles, worth R518 million, at the SAPS Academy in Benoni on Thursday. They go to 140 high-crime stations and specialised units, and 58 stay as a reserve fleet at Head Office.

Detective Services and Forensic Services get 739 vehicles. Another 200 go to the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units. Visible Policing and Operations get 290 vehicles.

The Eastern Cape gets 163 vehicles and Gauteng gets 151. Mpumalanga gets 147, KwaZulu-Natal 135 and the Western Cape 113. The Free State gets 103, North West 84, Limpopo 79 and the Northern Cape 54.

Masemola said vehicle availability is crucial. He said that when mobility is compromised, communities face delayed responses and lose confidence in the police.

He also called for strict oversight of how the vehicles are managed. "These vehicles belong to the people of South Africa. They are not instruments of personal convenience or symbols of privilege."

Key facts

Who
Fannie Masemola (National Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General); South African Police Service (Police service that received the vehicles and hosted the ceremony)
What
Masemola handed over 1 087 vehicles valued at R518 million at a ceremony at the SAPS Academy in Benoni, allocated to 140 high-crime police stations and specialised units, with 58 kept as a reserve fleet at Head Office.
When
29 October 2026
Where
Benoni, South Africa, Eastern Cape
Status
Reported

Elections Hot

What you need to know

Voting in the 2026 Local Government Elections is under way at 23,696 stations, and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) reported a smooth start on 4 November. Stations opened at 7am and close at 9pm, and by 10am preliminary figures showed 3,523,691 voters had cast ballots.

There were problems: unused ballot papers were stolen from Mnyameni Secondary School near Durban, police opened a case, and the IEC relieved the station staff of duty. Some voters in Tshwane said they were turned away for wearing party shirts, but the IEC denied this and said only mayoral candidates' entourages were barred.

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe told members not to query the results or discredit the IEC, while the IEC said false online claims show routine procedures as fraud.

  1. BOSA's Solomons flags one-ballot problem at Cape Town voting stations
  2. Mashatile urges new councillors to put voters first
  3. IEC dismisses MK Party worry about dead people on voters' roll

See every update

US mid-terms Heating up

What you need to know

Democrats won back both the US House and Senate in the midterm elections held on 3 November, according to media projections. Exit polls showed voters were angry about high prices and the direction of the country, and rebuked President Donald Trump.

Before the vote, US forces struck targets on Qeshm Island in Iran, while Republicans struggled to defend the war against Iran on the campaign trail. Iranian officials said US voters rejected the war, and Tehran stayed on high alert for possible new US strikes.

Markets reacted, with the dollar hitting a one-month low and the rand firming to around R16.55, as analysts pointed to fears of gridlock in Washington.

  1. Iran welcomes Democratic wins in US midterm elections
  2. Democrats win US Congress in midterm vote, projections show
  3. Ramaphosa wants US trade deal after AGOA suspension

See every update

AI Cooling

What you need to know

Nvidia has told its cloud computing clients to sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese companies, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic said it has committed to spend close to $900bn on AI infrastructure, and that its computing costs are rising faster than its revenues.

Elsewhere, reports from unnamed sources say OpenAI's latest funding round is falling short of expectations, and a judge let the NAACP pollution case against xAI proceed. In South Africa, the VAST AI investment scheme went offline on 30 October after withdrawals marked approved did not arrive, according to a news investigation.

  1. Accenture faces accusations over AI report with false citations
  2. CrowdStrike to buy two AI security startups
  3. Google lets schools turn off AI tools but limits Search

See every update